Closest Personal Encounter with Military Aircraft

Sat in the ARDU F/A-18B while getting a private tour of RAAF Edinburgh. They only do that to people in the know. Also a got a private look at an ARH Tiger on the flightline while at Avalon 2017.

During my military service being a passanger in:

- C-160 Transall

- CH-53

- UH-1D

- Bo-105

- EC-135T

For anyone that lives in Arizona, if you get a chance to check the Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum in Falcon field, Mesa. For me the best part is that it is small, not many people where there. Because it is small, my Son and me where allowed to crawl under the aircraft, and look at many of the details. The Mig-21PF was the highlight for me. They also had an F-4N

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and other aircraft like beautifully restored Grumman Guardian

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And they are restoring a Mig-15

I sat in a TS-11 Iskra trainer as a kid once. That would technically be the closest. Besides that I saw plenty of military aircraft in museums and at air shows - most of the teen fighters, almost all MiG variants, a Viggen, a Tiger II, a Su-27... which unfortunately crashed in front of me :(. The University where I majored owns a MiG-29, a Su-22 and a few other a/c. I get to see those fairly frequently. Recently I've been seeing Hinds flying by a lot... probably to get me hyped for DCS: Mi-24P ;). Now that I think about it I saw quite a lot for someone with no IRL military experience. It never gets boring though!

Way back in the mid-70's my parents and I would make occasional trips to Spokane WA (USA). On a couple of those we stopped at Northtown Mall while there was a miltary display being...well, displayed. I remember an M110 (113? The APC with aluminum sides) as well as an F-4 Phantom. They allowed us kids to climb in, under, and around the displays (parents were probably too cool to do it)...I distinctly remember looking at the grease trails under the F-4!

I asked one of the people there how they got the plane in to the parking lot...he pointed to a semi with a flat bed trailer. Don't know if that's how they did it, but still was a cool experience.

I'm hoping someone can recall any similar display, because it couldn't have just been in Spokane...

never got to actually fly jets but i got a few chances to fly around for a while in full mission f-16 (once) and f-18 (twice) simulators ---- pretty cool

Huey, Australian Army training exercises circa 1977/1980.

F1-11 at maybe 100 mtrs at mach 1 + That scared the shyt out of me the first time straight up, out of no where their is the very loud bang almost as good as a M77 then the roar of the jet only to see the afterburner flame and jet disappear over the tree line.

I'm not going to say that occurrence got any better for the times after during the exercise either, also I came to the sombre conclusion that had circumstances been different and the F1-11's actually bought gifts your day would be F'ked over and you probably wouldn't know about it.

YAK 52, L39 Albatros. Stick time, :D . Civilian Military Flight Operator, here down under.

If Trainers are okay Robinson R44 Cadet. Stick time.

We had a cyclone some years back and had a Blackhawk hover over our house at like maybe 30 mtr it was uncannily quite with a rhythmic thawt thawt thawt sound given the fact it was hovering where it was.

:D

Way back in the mid-70's my parents and I would make occasional trips to Spokane WA (USA). On a couple of those we stopped at Northtown Mall while there was a miltary display being...well, displayed. I remember an M110 (113? The APC with aluminum sides)..

Probably fortunate it wasn't going as I remember them being rough as guts, noisy, dusty and how anyone in their right mind would get in ( I'd be cool with driving it though), oh hang I volunteered to join. ;)

It was just a familiarisation exercise we only knew them as APC's

We also did a similar thing with Huey for a few days, it didn't matter that was awesome.

Rode in CH-53s, H-60s, CH-46s, C-130s, C-17s, and along with riding in a UH-1Y was allowed to issue hate and discontent with the M134.

I personally dispensed close to 4.5 million gallons of JP-8 and other aviation fuel during my four year career. Pumped gas into all of the above; plus F-18s/16s/14s/one 117, a 15E, a 105, AH-64s, AH-1s, CH-47s, AV-8Bs, C-5s, KC-135s....plus some cool black op aircraft like Learjets, UH-1 alternates, Cessna's, and Buffaloes.

The closest I came to an aircraft...after finding no BUNO on rear of an F-18 with VMFA-115 I walked to the other side - nothing painted there. As I was walking back around to the starboard side my head was down while writing on my clipboard. Bamo - walked into the rear elevator. Top of head injuries tend to bleed - a lot - so I would say DNA exchange is pretty close.

Since I grew up near Ramstein AirForce Base I used to attend the annual OpenDay and had access to many western aircraft. I actually have a photo of me in the Cargo Area of a C5-Galaxy back from '73 or '74..I will post it if I can still find it.

I touched a Mi-24 at display near my place. That's about the only eastern plane I saw in RL and was able to "touch it".

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When I was 10-15 years old we used to ride our bikes to the end of the strip just behind the fence and watched F4's and C5's thundering towards us, lifting up just a couple hundred yards/meters in fron of us ( I guess 200m ). NOTHING beats 2 Phantoms in full afterburner at 20-30 feet above your head. Forget Wayne's World and that boring 747 ! 2 F4's or 2 Starfighters are WAY louder and shakes your whole body, I mean it ViBrAtEs 10x harder than standing in front of AC/DC's loudspeaker array, done both, believe me, 2 Phantom's will show how tough you are !

Another day, around when we hit Lybia/Ghadaffi first time after the Berlin Disco asault I was spray painted with Kerosine from 2 F-111's that dropped fuel in low level flight without burning it as they usually do. That was the most unpleasant shower I ever took and I was MILES away from home and it was one of those HOT summer days, sweat mixed with kerosine has a strange smell in your nose and a bad taste on your lips.

Worst I saw was the Frecce Triccolori Aerobatic Team of Italy crashing into the crowd at the OpenDay display, dozens of dead body everywhere and suddenly I lost the fanatic view towards (military) jets for a few years. Scenes like that change your life and I only escaped alive by pure luck.

Sitting on the flight deck of a P-3K Orion for 6 years and 1,600hrs as a Flight Engineer, then briefly in same spot on a C-130H for 6 months.

Two flights in the backseat of a MB339CB with various low level 6g shenanigans. Also was an engine runner on the Macchi for a few years back when I was a techie.

Sat in various aircraft cockpits/flight decks on aircraft ranging from Spitfire and Mustang to Hueys to C-5 Galaxy and Concorde.

Not military but definitely a highlight for me was being on the flight deck of a 747-400 during a maint test flight. Those things have some power when it is just 6 ppl on board and 10t each in the 4 main tanks!! VVI pinned to the stop during climbout.

Been quite lucky I guess, but my whole working life has been in military and civil aviation.

edit.

Changed my mind about sharing :-)

Does Marine One count? If so my closest personal encounter was on my lunch break today.

I work in downtown Manhattan near the East River, and when the weather's nice I generally have lunch by the water. There's a helipad nearby that ferries tourists around the island, but for some reason it was empty today. I thought that was odd as I like to watch the choppers takeoff and land. I'm always amazed that not a single one, yet, has hit VRS, got sucked into the ground, and exploded. After a few hours in the DCS Huey I thought that was the only way to get down.

Anyway, my curiosity was short lived because at that moment there was a loud WUMP WUMP WUMP above me and I see a V-22 Osprey coming in. Not something you see in Manhattan every day (although I did see F-15s on 911). It proceeds to land (sorry, juggling my rice pudding and couldn't get a shot of it in flight), and then a second one comes in and does the same thing. They were a lot bigger, and LOUDER, than I expected. At this point I'm deep in WTF-ville, but the answer soon materialized when the President's chopper, Marine One, appeared and landed next to them. Then an identical Marine One (a decoy I guess) followed it in a couple of minutes later. Trump had been in town for a couple of days and I was seeing his ride out of there (i.e. his evacuation crew after his awful comments on Charlottesville the prior evening.)

I've attached some photos. The first is Marine One on approach, with the top of the Brooklyn Bridge behind it. The second is a zoom of the chopper almost overhead. Then I show it going in to land with the two V-22's on the pad, and finally all four shut down.

Just another day at the office.

Been up in a Canadian Forces Buffalo and a CP-140 Aurora. Sat in a CT-114 as well as a CF-18 while on base. All while in Air Cadets.

Does Marine One count? If so my closest personal encounter was on my lunch break today.

 

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Very cool. Living fairly close to Washington D.C. and Quantico Marine Base, I have had numerous occasions to see both but I did not realize, nor witness, that the Osprey was being used as an escort for Marine One.

Again, very cool and thanks for the pics.

Thanks Cichlidfan. I obviously had no idea about the Osprey either, although these aircraft were being used to transport Trump for NY to NJ, rather than to and from the White House, which may have influenced the escort.

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I hope it was a pleasant trip :D.

 

Su-20, bort number 6256, produced in '75, imported in '76 and in service till '97. Not many of these bad boys left in Poland. A few years ago this one still had original paintscheme and markings on it (albeit badly washed out), but then gas station owner repainted it with some frivolous interpretation of "military" colours.

 

Oh well, at least it didn't end up being vandalized or painted as a kebab-bar ad billboard or something. Many others did.

Ah so a as a man living in the area you were able to Recognize the Exact Su20 down to its Serial #?

Good eye

My closest encounter with a military aircraft happened whan I was about 10

My mum took me to see my cousin who was serving in the military as a helicopter pilot. We got to the base and were met by him and he took us to the gazelle he flew and sat inside the cockpit for ages talking and showing me what the different gauges button etc did

14 years in the RAF as an Aircraft propulsion Technician.

Best part of the job? I got to ground run Harriers and Tornados, got to fly in lots of stuff but only 1 fast jet (Harrier) even got a right hand seat on a ground run in an F111 once., that's fairly close I'D say.

Best job I ever had and would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Hello,

What is the closest encounter you have ever had with a military (or warbird) aircraft. Stories are greatly appreciated. I'll tell mine of that every summer the local ANG C-17 unit always does low level runs over my house, enough that you will be watching TV and it will be drowned out by the engine and the house slightly shakes! We also use to have an A-10A squadron long ago and every year at all the Memorial parades they would do multiple fly over's. I once also saw 2 4 ships of Blackhawk's fly right over my house one early morning. Now I am sure someone has to have gotten buzzed by some aircraft while in the middle of nowhere!

I am former USA Navy Seabees.

In 1977 my reserve battalion sent a 55-man work crew, including me, down to Gitmo (Guantanamo, Cuba) for a remodeling housing project for Jamaican civilians living and working on the base.

We took a bus from the Army National Guard Base in Peekskill, NY about 4 A.M. down to Willow Grove Naval Air Station to get our ride down. It was a 1960's era, all white, Reserve, 4-engine prop search and rescue airplane. That plane might have been used for submarine hunting; have seen newer versions with turbo-props on them that look similar. Willow Grove is no more, but it used to be just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It was a 7 hour flight.

About half-way down, 2 engines started belching black smoke and the flight engineer came back to take a look how bad it was. We were not quite to the Bahamas, yet,

That guy told us, "Not to worry! If we have to ditch, this plane can float longer than anything the Navy had at the time."

Navy guys have a peculiar sense of humor!

We made it OK. Had a great 2 week February vacation and got some swimming in with very pretty tropical fish in the ocean. Flew back on that same plane. Don't know what the model ID was. It had a big vertical stabilizer.

-+-

My one day off mid-way through Navy basic I did my liberty to downtown Chicago and saw a great air show down by the science museum just off Lake Michigan.

Later that summer to Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Los Angeles, California got called up my duty section at the Port Hueneme Seabee base to go direct traffic for an even better air show there. Man, they had everything. Summer 1974.

Most likely was a R5D (Navy C-54) they had them up through the early '80s.

NOE (and jumped from) C130's and C141's during Airborne school. NOE only UH60, UH1, and CH47s.

A10's strafing and picking up a school bus during the "million dollar minute" where everyone goes cyclic rate of fire with every weapons systems.

During Infantry OBC, a FAC attached to 1st BAT, 75th RR came to lend a helping hand. After calling in CAS, the FAC turns and says "should I ask for a fly by?" Sure, I said. Then the fast movers buzzed the wrong hilltop. After correcting, they did a low level fly by. What they *don't* tell you is that a pair of F16s flying that low and fast will produce sound that go beyond the pain threshold. The rat bastards! :) I still remember them streaking in towards our hilltop as I said to myself "wow, they really are NOE....." then nothing but pain! LOL. I swear I could see the pilots eyes because he had his visors up.

During one FTX, I was watching with NODs when I saw an Apache hover up beyond the hill and saw the pilot looking right at me with his NVGs - much better than my NODs. It's amazing that something so loud can sneak up on you like that.

And training in Ft. Carson, we were sitting on top of a mesa. It was admin time so we were kicking back. It was a beautiful morning when we saw a pair of A6's fly past the mesa - slightly below us. What a beautiful site that was.

In Tucson, watched countless A10s do touch and goes *all* day. But from a distance U of A to Davis Monthan distance.

From a distance watched F14s fly around Miramar area. But nothing close up.

One vicarious story. Our CSM told us about his experience sitting on a hilltop many clicks away when the B52s made their Arclight missions. He told us that you can visually see the concussive waves rolling in like waves in an ocean. Before it hits you and you can feel it with your body.

First time I was close to an aircraft was the one I flew, a DH Chipmunk at RAF Turnhouse, been in a few since then.

CH47

Spitfire - that took a bit of persuasion at a museum, but it was for a friend of mine as he really loved the Spit. I could not tell you what version it was.

F16 Block 30

C130

Mi24 both gunner and pilot's seats

Avro Vulcan

E.E. Lightning F3, F53

Canberra

Sepcat Jaguar

Tornado

Been rather close to a lot more, helped push a Spitfire and Hurricane to the flight line at Farnbourgh

Had a very enjoyable afternoon wandering through the hangar at Duxford where they repair and restore the aircraft, asking questions as I went :)

No...especially when there is no description of the event...

:doh: :doh:

No description needed.

Flown in: CH-53, CH-46, C-130, C-5, UH-60, OH-58, M998 (way too fast over a hill, landing was brutal)

Rubbed up against/sat in: UH-1, AH-1, F-4, F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, A-4, A-7, A-8, AV-8, A-10, F-102 (Dad was a crew chief at Travis), B-17, B-29, SR-71. It pays to have been a Civil Air Patrol cadet. People literally throw you in an aircraft.

I'm retired from real life military aviation. :pilotfly: